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Barcelona Terror attack: Aussies injured

Barcelona Terror attack: Aussies injured

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed three Australians have been hurt when a van mowed people down in a popular tourist spot, killing more than a dozen people and injuring around one hundred more.

Hockey talks up 'growing momentum' in economy

National accounts figures released Wednesday are pleasing says the Treasurer, but growth is still too low and unemployment too high.

On Wednesday Joe Hockey used the words "a pleasing set of numbers". The numbers are much less pleasing than he is trying to suggest.

The Australian economy grew 0.5 per cent in the June quarter, a slightly better result than expected. But all of the growth (in fact much more than all) was accounted for by a 0.9 per cent jump in the stock of unsold goods.

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Stocks add to growth when converted into statistics. But unless they are being built up ahead of a growth in sales of those stocks they are a bad sign. Where they are being built up because people aren't buying, they are an awful sign.

Consumer spending climbed a better-than-expected 0.5 per cent, so there's hope, but it's far from the soundest foundation on which to base talk of an economic upturn.

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After contributing so much for so long, mining shrank the economy by 0.2 per cent in the June quarter. Not because it's not bringing in money but because it is bringing in less than it did in the March quarter.

What will drive the economy, deliver that "real and building momentum" the Treasurer speaks of?

Speaking just after the national accounts were released Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said the momentum was unlikely to come from more household borrowing. There was already enough. Nor was it likely to come from government. Most governments are trying to contain their borrowing. That leaves businesses, especially non-mining businesses given what's happening to miners.

Eventually he said they would abandon caution. At some point in the future shareholders will stop asking about cost-cutting and ask "where's your growth plan?"